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In the case registered against him by Madhya Pradesh police for hurting religious sentiments, the Supreme Court today made its earlier order granting bail to comedian Munawar Faruqui absolute.
Court has also clubbed all complaints/ FIRs filed against Faruqui and has transferred them to Indore.
The instant order was passed by a bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sanjay Karol.
In January 2021, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had refused to grant bail to Faruqui & co-accused Nalin Yadav booked under IPC sections 295-A (outraging religious feelings), 269 (unlawful or negligent act likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) and other relevant provisions.
A bench of Justice Rohit Arya had then observed,
"The evidence/material collected so far, suggest that in an organized public show under the garb of standup comedy at a public place on commercial lines, prima facie; scurrilous, disparaging utterances, outraging religious feelings of a class of citizens of India with deliberate intendment, were made by the applicant. In the light of the statements of the complainant and the witnesses referred above, the seized articles, viz., video footage of the show and the seizure memos detailed above, at this stage it is difficult to countenance to the submissions of the learned counsel for the applicant as complacency of the applicant cannot be ruled out, besides vulnerability of his acts in public domain. It is not a case of no evidence. Moreso, the investigation is in progress. The possibility of collection of more incriminating material and complacency of other persons cannot also be ruled out. Further, it has come on record that similar nature of offence has been registered against the applicant at Police Station Georgetown, Prayagraj, State of Uttar Pradesh."
Faruqui was accused of making adverse comments against Lord Ram and other Hindu Deities. It was on January 1, 2021, that he along with 3 others was arrested after a complaint was filed against them.
Subsequently, several complaints and FIRs were lodged against Faruqui in different states
Notably, Faruqui had approached the Top Court for quashing of the police complaints against him for the remarks he had made during a comedy show.
This prayer was altered a bit, and Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, appearing on behalf of the stand-up comedian, told the bench today that the scope of the prayer would be restricted only to clubbing of the FIRs.
Chaudhari thus urged the bench to club the FIRs and transfer them to Mumbai or Delhi.
Case Title: Munawar vs. State of Madhya Pradesh
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